Lady of the night

© Wolfgang Dolak

Lady of the night

Uploaded: November 02, 2002

Description

A freshly hatched dragonfly, wings not usable yet. Slide film, scanned.

Comments

Tess Campbell November 02, 2002

on gossamer wings she flies.... #12131

Omer Sidat May 26, 2019

Great shot Wolfgang!
Has this photo been digitally edited, or is it the scan of the exact orginal? I am curious about the illumination of the drangonfly. I love to do night photography, which is why I am a little confused. Given the fact that the Moon and the night sky is in the frame, the bright light from the moon should have outweighed the sharp colors and details captured of the dragon fly. Specially where a high degree of close-up work has been done. Also, while using the close-up lense, if you had to focus on the dragon fly, the moon and the night sky should have blurred, which is not the case!!! I may be wrong.

Could you possibly share your camera and setting details. Its indeed an interesting composition, and I would love to learn the technique. - Omer Sidat #20641

Omer Sidat May 26, 2019

Great shot Wolfgang!
Has this photo been digitally edited, or is it the scan of the exact orginal?
I am curious about the illumination of the drangonfly. I love to do night photography, which is why I am a little confused. Given the fact that the Moon and the night sky is in the frame, the bright light from the moon should have outweighed the sharp colors and details captured of the dragon fly. Specially where a high degree of close-up work has been done. Also, while using the close-up lense, if you had to focus on the dragon fly, the moon and the night sky should have blurred, which is not the case in your image!!! I may be wrong.

Could you possibly share your camera and setting details. Its indeed an interesting composition, and I would love to learn the technique. - Omer Sidat #20642

Donna R. Moratelli May 26, 2019

AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #20645

Wolfgang Dolak May 26, 2019

Thanks for commenting, Tess, Omer and Donna!
Omer: You are absolutely right. It would not be possible to make a sharp image of the bright moon using a Canon autofocus macro lens focused on a dragonfly at 10 cm away!
I made the image in bright sunlight, approx. 1o - 11 o'clock late morning, got sunburnt, as I was doing it on the balcony.
Canon EOS 100, + 55 mm Canon autofocus macro lens, tripod, no artificial light, the sunlight was hard enough!! But if you want to catch a dragonfly hatching from the larval skin you can't say, 11 o'clock, no thank you - bad light!
I arranged everything for the photosession in a vase. Took a lot of pics - about two hours. Used a fuji provia 400 f professional (don't use the other 400! - too grainy and only good in soft light!) slide film.
I scanned the images at 2900 dpi with a nikon coolscan IV ED. Then I imported into PS and did all the necessary adjustments, including levels, saturation etc. - would take too long to describe the 3 hour process (yes!).
The moon was added in a separate layer. The stars were no problem.
Hope that unveils the secret for you, Omer!
Regards
birdie #20647

Sharon E. Lowe level-addict May 26, 2019

birdie - great shot! Definitely worth your efforts and the hard work you put into it! #20666

Wolfgang Dolak May 26, 2019

Thanks, Sharon. I appreciate your feedback!
birdie #20671

Wolfgang Dolak May 26, 2019

Thanks, Sharon. I appreciate your feedback!
birdie #20674

Omer Sidat May 26, 2019

Birdie,

A great shot, with a great effort indeed. Now it all makes sense. I was off the hook for a while trying to figure out what may have happened behind the curtains.

Thanks a great deal for sharing all the details. You are a true sport. I sure learnt a few new things today.

Keep such amazing shots coming.

Kind regards,
Omer #20734


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